The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1887-10-27
PRISON AID.

A circular received from the State
Board of Corrections and Charities in
forms US that the 3Oth day of October
has been set aside as "Prison Sunday"
to be observed in this and foreign
countries, and clergymen are asked
to devote one service to this subject.
The circular says:
There are in the prisons, jails and
lcxul,s Of the state Of Minnesota more
than $40 prisoners, or an average of 10
for each county in the state. Tie
county jails and city lOckups are in
great need Of Improvement, both for
the sake of the inmates and for the
sake Of the community at large. This
imprOvem> can only be secured
through the education Of the people on
this subject.
Another matter Of great Importance
10 the provision for aiG to prisoners
upon their discharge, who may wish to
lead AL lmnt st life. 1t is the general
testimony Of those who have given at
tentiOI to the matter that many dis
charged cOnvicts return to u criminal
life who might have been saved by ex-
tending u helping hand.
IT, this end the State Board of Cor
rectiOns and Charities is very desirOus
Of securing the organization in the
state Of Minnesota Ot u Prisoners Aid
SUciety.
Among the thousand and one re-
forms which are needed, and which are
being agitated, few are more urgently
demanded than this very prison re-
1s,o ho
simply horrible pens, and the treat
ment of prisoners is not only unkind
but imlIuman. Often the prisoner is
simply awaiting trial for an offense of
which he is not guilty. but he is never
theless subjected to hardships which
break his health and spirit. Some
times the prisoner is an innocent girl
or boy, held as witness in some i'm.
portant case, and yet they are deprived
Of liberty, confined in close quarters,
among criminals, lupatics, and such
surroundings as are calculated to drive
sensitive persons mad.
1t would be true to say that all our
machinery for executing the laws and
governing the people is crude. cumber
some. mechanical and without ''soul." :"
But we might 60 further and say that
much of it is inhuman and barbarous.
Some one has said that he was glad
he did not live in former times, for 1T
was such cruel world then.'' If he
should 90 among the prisons, aims
houses. asylums, hospitals, ETC.. of our
day, he would find that it is still q
''cruel world" full Of all ''subtlety,"
selfishness, brutality and injustice.
But let US aid those who are striving
to reform these terrible abuses by ev-
cry good word and substantial token.
DOnnelly's book on the Bacon cypher
is making stir. Periodically this
Bacon-Sl'akspeare question must be
met and discussed. 1t will no doubt
finally settle down to the ADVANCE
theory, long maintained, that neither
Bacon nor Shakespeare alone wrote
the plays. Bacon assisted Shakespeare
and Shakespeare threw his own genius
into them and adapted them to the
stage. Being himself . manager and a
play writer. practical man and a
poet, he gave the world its truest, its
deepest. its most playable plays. All
the historical plays and all sucl, plays
~ Romeo and Juliet. built upon actual
history or upon novels, Shakespeare
could produce a. readily as the more
learned Bacon.